SIT report: Zakia seeks more documents

Days after she was handed over the report of SIT that probed into her complaint alleging complicity of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 riots,Zakia Jafri on Thursday filed a plea in the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court seeking some more crucial documents that she said were missing from the tranche of papers made available to her on the orders of the same court.

Related News

Days after she was handed over the report of SIT that probed into her complaint alleging complicity of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 riots,Zakia Jafri on Thursday filed a plea in the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court seeking some more crucial documents that she said were missing from the tranche of papers made available to her on the orders of the same court.

Advertising

In an application filed before the court presided over by metropolitan magistrate M S Bhatt,she said a number of crucial documents pertaining to statements of several ministers and top police officers,compact disks (CDs) and video footage of post-Godhra violence and other material were not there in the copy of the SITs closure report that was provided to her on May 7.

Zakia is the widow of Ahsan Jafri,a former Congress MP who was among the 69 persons killed in the Gulberg Society during the post-Godhra riots of 2002.

The Supreme Court-appointed SIT (special investigation team),in its closure report submitted to the court eaerlier,had given a clean chit to Modi.

Advertising

Among the documents that Zakia has now sought are the preliminary inquiry report of the SIT submitted by DIG A K Malhotra to the SC on May 14,2010,analysis/comments by the SIT chairman therein and the notings of the then additional chief secretary (ACS) Ashok Narayan on the Godhra incident prepared on the basis of information provided by the then DGP K Chakravarty and then submitted for approval before the Assembly.

Besides,the statement read out by the then minister of state for home Gordhan Zadaphia in the Assembly on the Godhra incident,statements of CRPF and RPF officials as recorded by the SIT and the statement of IPS officer Vipul Vijoy,the then ATS chief,havent been included in the report,Zakia has said in the petition.

Latest Videos

Transcripts and CDs of the television coverage of the violence of 2002 available with Nanavati Shah Commission and CDs containing call records of police officers and provided by IPS officer Rahul Sharma to the SIT are also absent from the report, the application filed by Zakia before the court of metropolitan magistrate MS Bhatt says.

According to activist Teesta Setalvad,a co-petitioner in Zakias complaint,unless the SIT provides the full report,the matter cant be proceeded with.

Best Of Express

Zakias lawyer Sadik Shaikh said voices in many of the CDs provided along with the SIT report are inaudible while various documents are illegible.

SIT lawyer R S Jamuar told the court these documents were 10 years old and were torn and mutilated. He said if Zakia wanted to inspect SIT records,he had no objection.

Regarding the documents sought by Zakia,Jamuar said the Supreme Court had directed SIT to produce an appropriate report before the competent court and the court had been directed to provide a copy to the complainant. Now,some of the documents sought by Zakia Jafri are before the SC in sealed covers. For remaining documents,it is up to the SIT to decide as to what to submit and what not to.We will file a detailed reply to the application, he said.

After a round of arguments from both sides,the metropolitan magistrate posted the next hearing for May 19.

IAS officer picks hole in SIT report

More Explained

IAS officer Pradip Sharma,reacting to the SITs final report published on May 10,2012,in The Indian Express,said: The article discredits the veracity of my SIT testimony on the basis that A K Sharma was on leave and therefore such a conversation could not have taken place. I am at a loss as to how one can ascertain Sharmas leave status when I was unable to give an exact date (of when the call was made).

Pradip Sharma,who was Jamnagar municipal commissioner in 2002,is quoted by SIT saying A K Sharma had allegedly rung him up sometime in the first week of March 2002 on his official mobile number and asked him to warn his brother and IPS officer Kuldip Sharma against protecting Muslims.

A K Sharma had told the SIT he was on leave from February 19 to March 6,2002,while categorically denying he had spoken to Pradip Sharma.

Advertising

Pradip Sharma is facing a case of irregularities in the quake rehabilitation scheme in Kutch,in which he has also been arrested.